[help devs ^^ ] Add vanilla animations to a custom model

[arkhiel]

Hi .

Just for testing purpose (and maybe adding new creatures), I imported swamp raptor model and skeleton, created some dummy mesh with cubes, that could kinda go with the bones, skin wrapped it and exported it. Thing is, I can see that I didn't import at all the animations as raptor skeleton is about 600ko and mine 4ko. In game, the model is stuck, no animation but death.

I exported the default raptor from blender in FBX , in 3dsmax when I try to import animations I can choose one (not all of them, weird), but when exporting, skeleton doesn't include the animations (whereas it seems checked in ogre exporter, but I'm not sure at all ...)
I guess I have missed something but no idea which part .

[someone]

The simplest way to use existing animations is to share an existing skeleton like characters and armours do. Rig to the skeleton you imported then use the link only option and set the skeleton name to the existing skeleton in the mesh animations tab of ogremax.

I think you have to specify start and end frames of each animation you export in ogremax when exporting the skeleton.

You can use the blender NLA editor to bake all the actions into a single animation if you want to export them all into max.
Also you should set blender's scene frame rate to 30fps before importing animations otherwise you will get fractional frames that may cause issues (I should probably make the importer do this automatically).

[arkhiel]

I get the first part as I'm already doing it ^^.
When I export it in fbx and re import it in max whatever I do i can only keep one animation in max (but I have to chose it, so they're all exported).
I think i have to learn how to rig in blender then so I won't have this data loss.

and learn how to do what you said ^^'.

But then, new reptilian beasts

EDIT: Thanks for the tips

[arkhiel]

Bumping ^^ .
Ok so I've added the armature modifier to a cube (just to test the concept). cube is placed near a leg of a swamp rapror just to see if it will move accordingly. Renamed the modifier to OgreSkeleton (as it's made for the swampduck mesh), and I picked of course the raptor skelly for the modifier. No idea how I can actually tell the vertexes are linked to the calf :/ . There are vertex groups for the duck mesh, but not for the cube (in max when you add the skin modifier you can at least assign your mesh to one or multiple bones).

I did set 30 FPS in scene settings.

I cannot define a starting/ending frame in the exporter (or at least haven't seen it at all, but if there is one i'd like to know where ^^ ).
Told the exporter to export binormals and tangeants, + skeleton and animations.
I just get that :/ :
https://imgur.com/a/7zYTp

EDIT: it's either that or that my 'non type object" hasn't got a texture (so i added a dumb one), then it has no name etc etc... just doesn't work.

EDIT 2 : Even tried to at least export the duck mesh, same error.

[someone]

I patched that export crash recently, download an updated blender plugin for the fix.
The start/end frame thing is if you are exporting animations from max, blender exports all actions listed in the nla editor as separate animations. I mentioned the joining all animations into one if you were trying to transfer everything from blender to max. You don't need to do anything with the animations if you are just using blender.

The skin modifier in blender just matches the vertex group name with the bone names. There is a function to auto-generate them, or you can just manually add one with the appropriate name.

[arkhiel]

Yeah I could set the start/ending frame in the max exporter, but I'm not sure it's working either. Even without appending every animation, i should at least be able to export one of them (the one recorded) :/ . In the renderer the animation works perfectly with my mesh.

But okay i'll retry at the moment with the updated blender plugin next time .

If you could check if the max version works for animations or if it's just me messing around ^^ ... I'm pretty sure my last try i had the good settings ^^.

PS : is there a way to import the skin modifier of vanilla armors ? when I import them they lose these informations, i'd like to actually get it to save the enveloppe and use it with another armor, as rigging can be real tricky with sliders .

Thanks

EDIT : I forgot the max version was a non commercial discontinued :/ . Tried the blender version (with the raptor model), and it works )!!!

EDIT 2 : Weirdly enough, re exporting the raptor model works but the mesh is like 400ko vs 2Mb for the original.
Haven't managed to add a custom model for now, but i'll get it ^^